SCHOOL EDITION 29 MARCH 2023 - Flipbook - Page 8
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FARMWEEK
MAY 16 2019
BALMORAL SHOW
Developments in
dairy technology
on display at show
C
OOKSTOWN Dairy Services (CDS)
will be at stand C27 at Balmoral
Show showcasing the latest in dairy
equipment and milking technology.
The equipment and solutions
on display will include products from all
categories including: Milking, Feeding,
Cooling, Scrapers, Herd Health and Fertility
Monitoring.
This year CDS has seen an increasing range
of dairy equipment installed on large dairy
herds in Northern Ireland. Cookstown Dairy
Services (CDS) operates from its modern
depot in Ballymoney and head office in Ardee,
County Louth.
In particular, Rapid Exit and Rotary Parlours
have been very popular with milk producers
as these parlours milk more cows in less time
using less labour. As herds are increasing in
size, the need for efficiency in milking has
grown even more important.
For farmers who want to go the automation
route, Dairymaster’s intelligent technology
boosts efficiency by controlling all functions
from milking to feeding to drafting and even
seamlessly integrates with its health and
fertility monitoring system – the MooMonitor+.
The MooMonitor+ is a health and fertility
monitoring system which detects cows in heat
and monitors the resting, feeding, rumination,
head position and restlessness of each animal
24/7. This is the first system validated in both
indoor and outdoor scenarios respectively
by two independent research centres for
both rumination and feeding. Both prove the
precision of the Dairymaster MooMonitor+
system.
The recent research was undertaken on an
indoor herd at Kentucky State University and
published in the Journal of Dairy Science. The
other study took place on a grazing herd at
Teagasc, Moorepark, and was published in
Animal – a major new International Journal of
More than 1,000 visitors came to the
Killen Bros farm open day recently
to see the new 36 unit Dairymaster
Swiftflo Swing Fast Exit milking parlour
while over 45,000 people have viewed
the video on Youtube at http://bit.
ly/2PQbZzL
PARLOUR: The impressive parlour on view at the Killen Farm Open Day.
Animal Bioscience.
MooMonitor has already been proven to
be the most accurate heat detection system
in the world based on trials carried out by
Kansas State University in the USA that were
published in the Journal of Dairy Science.
At Balmoral Show, CDS will be showing
the benefits of these rapid exit and rotary
parlours along with a special offer on a cluster
exchange – allowing a trade-in deal of old
milking clusters for new Dairymaster lite claw
pieces and liners.
There will also be a valuable prize draw for a
drum of ClusterCleanse liquid on the day.
The team of dairy equipment specialists
from Cookstown Dairy Services will include
Sean and John Reid, Gavin Connaughty, David
Smith and Michael Callaghan. Dairymaster
personnel will include Pat Ryan, Ger Corcoran
and Andy Buckley.
Among the new hi tech milking parlours
recently installed by the CDS team were
a 50 point Dairymaster Rotary for Gareth
Culbertson who farms near Moira in County
Down. The Culbertson family are milking 350
Holstein cows in this rotary and this takes one
operator about 80 minutes.
Gareth is delighted with the ease of milking
and the time saved milking their large herd.
You can see the cows on the Gartross farm
being milked in this hi tech parlour on
Youtube video at http://bit.ly/306zmtC
Since last February this popular video has
nearly 10,000 views to date.
The CDS team also installed a 36 point
rapid exit Dairymaster parlour for the Killen
brothers (Jonathan, Christopher, Robert,
Philip, Adam and Gordon) who farm in
partnership with their father Derek near
Newbuidings, in County Londonderry. They
supply Lakeland Dairies and milk is stored
in an energy efficient Dairymaster SwiftCool
Milk Tank.
The SwiftCool App monitors the cooling
system on farm and provides real-time
updates to a mobile phone. Thanks to the
fast-exit parlour, the Killen brothers have
cut milking time for their 360 cows from five
hours to just 90 minutes.
Their new parlour allows thirty-six cows to
exit the parlour in less than a minute as the
bailing rises overhead to allow the cows free
exit.
LEFT: The MooMonitor+ neck collar.